Friday, March 17, 2017

The rise and fall of the Roman Empire

On November of 2013, a team consisting of three men made their debut and quickly changed the face of the WWE, one of those men was Roman Reigns. The silent Powerhouse of The Shield. His contributions whilst still being part of the stable made him very prominent, those accomplishments were, record-tying most survivor series eliminations and record breaking eliminations in a single rumble. He was surely in the keen eyes of the WWE universe but not as much as Vince McMahon. It so happens the chairman of the board set his sights on making Roman Reigns the face of the company and it made sense, he had the looks, he was big and strong but the news spread to the WWE universe and soon the fans were in fear of having another John Cena, meaning predictable storyline, underdog booking and always going over.

And then the the worst happened, at the royal rumble 2015 match, Reigns emerged victorious after a very lackluster show and predictable winner. That event marked the official fall of the Roman Empire, part of it could be due to the lack of predictability, the other could be because the fans had this foreseen and then due to Daniel Bryan, due to his rise in popularity and lack of main event spotlight. The crowd turned on Roman Reigns who not only was the face but was also heading into the main event of the biggest wreslting event, WrestleMania and that too against the biggest heel on the roster, Brock Lesnar.

Original plans were rumored for Reigns to beat Brock Lesnar and cement his legacy as WWE's top star but due to the overwhelming negative reaction from not only fans but critics, WWE changed there plans and had him lose the match. At the end of the year, then champion Seth Rollins (who cashed in his money in the bank contract during the Lesnar-Reigns match at WrestleMania) was forced to vacate his WWE world championship due to an injury, he was scheduled to face Roman Reigns in the upcoming payperview but the idea was scratched and a tournament was held instead, it was pretty apparent Reigns was to win the tournament and once again was met with negative reactions.